


To Fight for our Future

by Bythia



Series: Just Write: Trope-Bingo 2020 [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Background Character Death, Discussion of Rape, Discussion of Torture, Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Seventh Year in Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:48:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26136772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bythia/pseuds/Bythia
Summary: Neville's last year in Hogwarts is a constant fight for survival and somehow he ended up being responsible for many of the other students. In the midst of all the chaos and fear, he finds an ally in an unexpected place and soon this unexpected alliance morphs into something more.
Relationships: Neville Longbottom/Draco Malfoy
Series: Just Write: Trope-Bingo 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897216
Comments: 4
Kudos: 91
Collections: Just Write! Trope Bingo





	To Fight for our Future

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea that has fascinated me for a long time and I'm very happy that I could finally explore it.
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters or anything of this world. I just borrowed them to play a little bit, and I don't make money with the stories I borrowed them for. But the words are mine, so please don't copy them to use them as your own.
> 
> Have fun,  
> Bythia

Neville flailed when he was abruptly pulled into a secrete passage he was passing by. A hand was pressed over his mouth and he was shoved with his back against the hard stone, the body of his attacker pressing against him. He beat a fist against green robes and tried to get to his wand with the other hand.

“Be quiet!” Malfoy hissed against his ear.

Neville groaned in protest, but then he stiffened. He could hear distant voices outside in the hall and it was unmistakable those of the Carrows. Neville let his fist drop down and nodded slightly to Malfoy. The last thing he wanted was an encounter with those Death Eaters disguising as teachers and he knew he would have run right into them if Malfoy had not dragged him here.

Neither of them moved until the voices and the steps of the Carrows were long gone. This time, when Neville tried to shove Malfoy away from him, the Slytherin took several steps back.

“You are welcome, Longbottom,” he spat out quietly.

Neville frowned. “What by Merlin was that?” He pulled his wand, feeling a lot better with it at the ready.

Malfoy snorted. “What, I save you from and you’ll thank me with cursing me? Not very Gryffindor of you!”

“What game are you playing, Malfoy?”

Malfoy crossed his arms and Neville did not miss the fact, that the other boy had not drawn his own wand. “The time for silly little games is long gone, don’t you think? - You and your little ragtag group of rebellious Gryffindors are not the only ones who want to get rid of these people.”

“You are serving the same master as them,” Neville reminded darkly.

Malfoy snorted. “That’s what you would think. - I thought we could help each other, but I see that you are not open-minded enough for an alliance.”

“You mean, I’m not naive enough to invite such an obvious spy into my secrets!”

Malfoy sighed. “I’m not a spy. There are a lot of students whose families follow the Dark Lord, while they themselves would love nothing more than to turn their back on them and their Lord. But that’s not as easy as it sounds!”

Neville clenched his teeth. “And why exactly would I care for that?”

“Don’t you see that we have roughly the same goal and at least the same enemy?” Malfoy shook his head sneering. “I would have thought as the heir of the House of Longbottom you would have been educated to be savvier than that!”

Neville shrugged. “To work together in any way would still mean that I would need to put some kind of trust in you and I just don’t see that happening.”

“And you think it would be easy for me to trust you?” Malfoy spat.

“At least you know exactly what my goal is. I would have to trust on your word that’s standing against the branding on your arm!” Neville backed away out of the secret passage, without taking his eyes off of Malfoy. “Never the less, thank you for saving me from an encounter with your comrades!”

  
  


Neville wasted no time with thinking about this encounter with Malfoy. There were so many things to worry about since he had come back to school for his seventh year, that he had no time for it. He had expected it to be a dark year since he had learned that Snape had been put into the place of Headmaster, but the Carrows and their iron-fisted rule over the school had been a surprise only revealed on the evening of the first of September.

Hogwarts had turned from being a school to being a constant fight for survival and regaining one's sanity. It had not even been a month before they had started to hide certain students in the Room of Requirements and somehow Neville had found himself in a leading position of their rebellion against the three Death Eaters who ruled the school.

Neville suspected, that at least Snape suspected him to be the ringleader of the disappearing students and all the little accidents happening to the Carrows and every student who was actively supporting them. The hands of the other teachers were bound and while many students, especially the younger ones, were angry and disappointed in the teachers, Neville understood why they did nothing that could get them thrown out of Hogwarts. It would only lead to more Death Eaters as teachers in the school.

It was shortly before Samhein when Neville had a second very similar encounter with Malfoy. And this time he allowed himself to pause and think about it, at least afterwards. At first glance, Malfoy was one of those who were supporting the Carrows and he was vocal about it, whenever other Slytherins or supporters of the Carrows from other houses were with him. But there had been other occasions, small ones when he was alone, in which he had let other students go who had clearly broken some of the new rules.

Maybe there was some kind of truth to Malfoy’s words, but that did not mean that Neville would be able to trust him. And yet he started to think about possibilities to built up some kind of careful relationship with Malfoy if only to get a small insight into the plans of the Carrows.

Those musings came to a head roughly two weeks after Samhein, when Malfoy once again let younger students got their way instead of ordering detention – which meant this year to be tortured by other students, who had been chosen by the Carrows – and was nearly discovered with it. Neville didn’t even think about it when he started to make a scene to get the Carrows attention before they could discover Malfoy.

It did lead to Neville earning detention for himself and as Malfoy had been right there around the corner and had actually come running as soon as he heard the commotion, the Slytherin had been chosen as the executioner of the detention.

Afterwards, Neville found himself being prodded into an empty classroom after the Carrows had left and Malfoy had originally gone on his own way but come back as soon as the Carrows had been gone.

Malfoy shoved him to a chair after closing and locking the door and putting up a rudimentary privacy ward. “Are you actually going to make a habit out of drawing their ire onto you?”

“Ah, now you are the one unwilling for a simple thank you, are you?”

Malfoy huffed. “Do you think you’ll be able to survive this year if you throw yourself in every torture lesson others earned themselves?” He pulled a vial out of his robe. “This will help against the cramps.”

Neville regarded it suspiciously. “Are you sharing your own emergency supply?”

“That’s my way of saying thank you!” Malfoy bit out.

Neville sighed. “Let’s say I believe you. Why did you change your mind?”

Malfoy growled. “There wasn’t much mind-changing involved. It was never my intention to follow my father’s path in this.”

“Your enthusiasm last year could have fooled me!”

Malfoy huffed. “I didn’t have much choice! I didn’t let him brand me willingly. And I had thought Dumbledore would see right through my plot, I wasn’t exactly subtle.”

“I know for a fact that the mark doesn’t take if you are not kneeling willingly in front of your Lord when you are receiving it from him!” Neville’s grandmother had been very thorough in educating him in these matters, even though she had never bothered to hide her bad opinion about him.

Malfoy snorted. “Sure. But this magic doesn’t differentiate between someone kneeling willingly because he actually wants to be a slave to that maniac, and someone kneeling willing because to not take the mark would mean to have to witness the torture and murder of a loved of. In my case, that would have been my mother and she is already suffering enough under my father and his master without me adding to it.”

Neville frowned. “Isn’t her life still at stake if you are discovered?”

Malfoy nodded. “It is. But … I learned last year that I can’t count on others to make this madness end. I have no idea if I can accomplish anything, but I have to at least try. The suffering of my mother will only find an end if the Dark Lord and my father are dead. I would be honoured to do the deed for my father myself, and I pray to Lady Magic every day that she will lead Potter to a path of success.”

“We can’t just let Harry do all the work,” Neville muttered.

Malfoy shrugged. “I have no idea how I could do anything to support him. I’m not even sure if what I do is any help to other students here. - Will you take this now, or not?” He waved the vial in front of Neville.

Neville shook his head. “I don’t need it, but thank you for offering.”

Malfoy frowned. “You don’t need to play the hero!”

“Your Cruciatus isn’t very effective,” Neville replied grinning.

“Could have fooled me with your wailing!”

Neville laughed. “Good to know it’s effective. Believe me, the first thing every student, who doesn’t support the Carrows, has learned this year, was to show them all the hurt and begging they want to see, regardless of how much the torture actually hurts.”

Malfoy gaped at him.

“All they want to see is the suffering, they don’t care for anything else,” Neville explained. “To show them what they want to see is saving us only from more torture. No one here cares for a false sense of pride.”

“I’ll … remember that,” Malfoy muttered. “To use it for myself.”

Neville frowned. “They are torturing you?”

Malfoy raised his brows. “Of course they are. No student in this school is spared their special teaching methods. But those who are supporting them are granted privacy at least.”

Neville sighed. “I wish there was a way to oust them from the school without risking bringing more of them here.”

“Not with a Death Eater as headmaster.”

“How did he even become headmaster?” Neville had wondered about that from the very beginning.

“Dumbledore had arranged it before he died. For some reason he trusted Snape. My father was delighted because after Scrimgour’s death it made it especially easy to actually put Snape into this position.” Malfoy crossed his arms. “The thing is, I’m really not sure about which side he is on. He is actively raining the Carrows in, against the Dark Lord’s orders as far as I know. Father says he is only getting away with it, because the Dark Lord is focused on other things and because Snape stays very high in his regard at the moment.”

Neville shook his head. “I may be willing to trust you enough to eventually work together, but for me, there is no doubt on which side Snape is.”

“I’m not trying to plead his case!” Malfoy assured hurriedly. “I just thought you should be aware, that he could be some sort of wild card. I don’t think anyone should rely on him reacting one way or the other.”

Neville nodded. He would keep that in mind and take a little more care of observing their current headmaster. “What help can you offer? Or would you want to offer?”

“For the start, I can keep you informed of the Carrow’s plans. And run interference whenever possible. I think you wouldn’t trust anything else at the moment.”

Neville was not sure if he could trust Malfoy even so much, but he nodded. He could have an open ear for Malfoy’s warnings and still regard them with caution. “And what do you want in return?”

Malfoy shook his head. “I don’t need or want anything at the moment. The reason I’m offering my help is, that I see more of a chance to actually achieve anything if I help you as if I try to keep working alone against them.”

  
  


Malfoy kept his word and in the following weeks, they started to develop a tentative if cautious relationship. They would meet up for not more than a few minutes at a time in secret passage to exchange information about the Carrows and their supporters.

Time seemed to fly by, even so, their actual education was the last thing on the mind of any student in Hogwarts. Through the Room of Requirements, they had a connection to the outside world and Aberforth Dumbledore helped them whichever way he could, was it with food and other necessities for those in hiding, or with information from outside of Hogwarts.

The Daily Prophet had become even more an instrument of propaganda than it had been before and there was no single wireless left in the whole school. The students had learned early on that their correspondence was monitored and censored as well so that Aberforth had become their only source for real information.

Most of the school had looked forward to the Yule break, to have an opportunity to get out as the Hogsmead weekends had already been cancelled at the beginning of the year. But Snape informed them only two days before the end of the term, that no student was allowed to leave the school. It was highly demoralising and even though they all knew that that was the goal, this knowledge did not make it in any way better.

A couple of days into the break, Neville and Malfoy managed to arrange a meeting yet again in an abandoned classroom under privacy wards. Neville had started to appreciate those little meetings with the Slytherin much more than he had ever thought possible. But Malfoy seemed to be the only one to actually understand his burden, as he was the only student not looking up for him to help or for solutions for their problems.

“I noticed some of the Supporters missing,” Neville muttered tiredly. “And I’m not the only one.”

“Has anyone noticed, that I leave the school every couple of days?”

Neville shook his head. “But you are not away for days on end when everyone else is imprisoned here.”

“That is exactly what this is, you realise that, yes?” Malfoy crossed his arms. “They are keeping you hostage to control your families. I have no idea what they plan to do in the summer. - Two hours ago Snape took Lovegood and brought her to Malfoy Manor because her father isn’t complying with the things they want and don’t want to see printed.”

Neville jumped from his chair. “What? Why didn’t you warn us?”

“Because I only learned of it at the moment they arrived. And only because I was preparing to come back”, Malfoy replied. He had been at home for the Yule celebration, and Neville knew he had not been happy to have to spend these two days there.

“Fuck!” Neville kicked against a chair and pulled at his hair.

“We can’t do anything for her,” Malfoy muttered. “We can only hope she’ll keep her head down. There are other’s in the dungeons of the Manor and they are kept there because they could still be useful. They don’t come to harm as long as they won’t make any problems.”

“That’s not reassuring!” Neville closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Who else are they keeping prisoner?”

“I don’t know. That is ‘nothing I have to bother myself with’, to quote my fathers words.” Suddenly Malfoy stood beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. If I could have warned her, I would have done it.”

Neville swallowed hard. “Maybe we should have expected it and put her into hiding weeks ago. Her father … We should have known he wouldn’t think of her safety.”

“We need to be careful about hiding any more students,” Malfoy cautioned. “The Carrows are getting very nervous about it, even though every other teacher is insisting, no students are missing in their classes.”

“We could smuggle all students out of Hogwarts,” Neville muttered.

“And then?” Malfoy shook his head. “Even if you manage not to get caught during the evacuation, where would you bring them? There is no safe place anywhere in this country.”

“And we need to hold onto Hogwarts.” Neville had no idea why that was, but Aberforth was insistent on it. The host of the Hogs Head had told him that Harry was carrying out some plan of his brother and Hogwarts had still to play a role in it. If Harry would be successful, he would eventually come back here and Neville suspected that at this point, the decision of the destiny of them all would be made here.

He turned to Malfoy. “Maybe it is time to make more elaborate plans.”

“Such as?”

“No one from the outside will help us to take back the school. If we can throw Snape, the Carrows and their support out, there is a chance to take Hogwarts back and maybe make it into a safe place for everyone who needs one, not only the students.”

Malfoy frowned. “You mean to organize a bunch of kids into some kind of army?”

“We already started that two years ago,” Neville reminded him. “And it has become obvious that we can’t count on the adults to fight for our future. We need to take this fight into our own hands.”

Malfoy took a deep breath. “Yeah, I see your point. Still … I have no idea how we could accomplish that.”

“There are students I’m unable to reach. Those in Slytherin, who don’t want to support the Dark Lord, mainly,” Neville said. “You’ll need to prepare them and to find out if we can actually trust them to fight on our side. It will be easier for you to do that now, while so many of the Supporters are gone.”

Malfoy barked out a desperate laugh. “So their misery will at least be of some use.”

Neville frowned. “Their misery?”

“Didn’t you notice that it’s all girls that are gone?” Malfoy shook his head. “I can assure you, they don’t have a few nice days at home. The Dark Lord wants an heir, even so, he has proclaimed himself immortal. But maybe he just wants a body he can take over because his is really outrageous. He is searching for the mother of that child.”

Neville felt sick. “That’s fucked up.”

“It really is. And even more so, as there are a few who actually think of it as a great honour.” Malfoy shuddered. “I don’t know why not everyone is seeing that to follow him will condemn us all!”

“And their parents are just…”

“It’s nothing new for his followers, as far as I know. My mother once said … that she could never repay the debt she owed my paternal grandfather for the insistence of the fidelity clause in the marriage contract of my parents. She didn’t outright say it, but I think what she really meant was, she was thankful my father was unable to lend her out to his Lord.”

“Just another reason to turn their back on this monster!”

Malfoy shrugged. “I never understood my father’s maniac obedience to this man. Not even as a child, when I was still looking up to him and all of it was only a dark memory.”

“We really need to organize an actual resistance,” Neville decided darkly. “I refuse to go down without fighting him!”

Malfoy smiled slightly. “You give me hope, you know? Since we started to meet I have begun to actually hope that this is not the beginning of a very dark age, that we’ll be able to find a way to beat him.”

  
  


Something changed after this first meeting during the Yule break. Malfoy morphed into Draco and Neville started to make plans together with him, instead of only using the information he could provide and they started to meet much more regularly, searching and finding secret rooms for more security during their meetings.

Draco was there for him when Neville had a minor break down after he heard of the attack on his grandmother. He had gotten a letter from her through Aberforth and knew of course that she had been able to flee without any major injuries, while at least one of those who had attacked her had probably to survived the encounter. Despite knowing all of that, the worry over his grandmother drove him crazy, but he had to keep up the unmoving face in the open in the school as well as in front of the students he had somehow ended up leading through this year. Suddenly Draco had become the only one he dared to show any weakness in front of and Neville did not even know how that had happened.

Their newfound goal brought a focus with it that had been missing for the whole first term of school and it spread out over all students. Neville had no idea how Snape or the Carrows could miss it, but they showed no reaction at all to it. January and February went by and brought a training schedule with them that every student in the know threw themselves into full of energy. Now they had something to do, something to work for, instead of just trying to get by.

His meetings with Draco were still a secret from the whole school and they had decided that it should stay this way until the very end. Despite that, they managed to meet every other day and Neville could draw strength from these meeting that he had never expected to get from a Slytherin and much less Draco.

The first week of March brought news that nearly broke Neville. He knew that something was up in the very moment when Draco stepped into the room and their eyes met. He was pale and there lay so much sorrow in the grey eyes, that Neville instantly felt overcome by dread.

“I need you to sit down, please,” Draco started.

Neville blinked but he followed the direction of his friend.

Draco drew another chair close and sat down right in front of him. “St. Mungos has a new head healer for all divisions. And he made some very drastic changes to the ways the hospital is run.”

Neville closed his eyes, desperately holding back his sob because he already knew where this would lead. There was no other reason for Draco to bring up St. Mungos.

Draco took his hands. “I am so sorry, Neville. Your parents … died yesterday in the early morning hours.”

Neville snorted, but it was half-drowned in a sob. “You mean they were murdered!”

“Yes.” Draco hesitated and then he let go of Neville’s hands to draw him into a hug. “They were killed together with a little more than fifty other people in long term care in something that officially was called an act of mercy.”

Neville let himself sack against Draco’s chest, nearly crawling into the Slytherin’s lap. For a long time, he allowed himself to freely cry, while Draco was slowly rocking him back and forth, calmly muttering nonsense Neville was not even listening to.

Finally, Neville asked with a broken voice, “Who did it?”

Draco shook his head. “I have no idea. There were a bunch of healers who left the hospital in protest, instead of watching on.”

“They should have stayed and fought!” Neville muttered angrily. “They should have protected their patients!”

“I agree.”

Neville thought he felt Draco pressing a kiss in his hair, but later he was never sure if it had not only been his imagination. There was nothing more said on this day between them. Draco held Neville until he felt composed enough to show himself again to the rest of the world and he silently helped Neville to clean his face and both of their robes.

There was another long hug afterwards before they parted ways on that day.

  
  


At first, Neville felt so crushed that he had barely the strength to hold up his facade in front of the other students. But all of them were depending on him and as destroyed as Neville felt, he did not want to let down any of them. He was not the only one who had lost part of their family in the last few months and he would not be the only one to totally break down from it.

It took a week for his grief to morph into anger and determination. He felt the situation would come to a head soon. Voldemort and his followers had to feel very secure to take these actions at the hospital. As the resistance in the school was growing and there was no news of Harry being captured, Neville suspected that Voldemort was starting to feel too secure. And that would lead to him and his people making mistakes.

Neville started a new phase in their plan at that time. If they wanted to take back the school, the students would not be able to do it alone. They had known from the very beginning that they needed to include the teachers at some point.

He chose McGonagall as his point of contact, mainly because she was his head of house and to talk with her privately, especially after officially being informed of the death of his parents (nearly two weeks after the fact) would be the least suspicious. While in the past McGonagall had often disapproved of their shenanigans, this time she was all in for their plans.

Besides the teachers, they also started to include the house elves. Neville knew that this was a somewhat risky move because ultimately they were bound to report to the headmaster, but he counted on the fact, that wizards and witches, in general, tended to forget that house elves even existed. The house elves here were bound to the school and among other things tasked with protecting the students. Snape may have ordered them to ignore the ongoing torture, but they were overly excited to help in any other way they could.

In the second week of April, Draco spent another weekend at home and when he came back, he looked as pale as on the day he had told Neville of the death of his parents. The Gryffindor had no idea what events could be as bad as that.

Draco sat on the floor on the opposite side of the room to the door and looked up at Neville as soon as he had entered the room. At the moment the door had fallen shut behind Neville, Draco said, “Potter, Weasley and Granger were captured.”

Neville felt his knees wobble and sank to the floor. “No!”

“Potter was unrecognisable and I didn’t give him away when my aunt asked me about it.” Draco swallowed hard. “I have no idea how, but they managed to flee somehow. And they took Lovegood and the others that were in the dungeon with them.”

“Oh thank Merlin!” Neville closed his eyes with a deep sigh.

“My aunt was livid because she thought Granger had somehow gotten into her vault. I have no idea what that was about. She tortured Granger, but that woman is tougher than I thought.”

Neville laughed lightly. “Yeah. Hermione is something else!” He crawled through the room to Draco and sat down beside him. “Was she hurt badly?”

Draco shrugged. “I have no idea. She was well enough to take part in the little skirmish that occurred. Potter disarmed me and stole my wand! … And my aunt’s, too. That is a least a little bit satisfaction about that whole mess.”

Neville snorted. “I can’t imagine that she’ll ever live that down. - But bloody hell, that was much to close for my liking!”

“They are really on some kind of mission, aren’t they?” Draco blew out a breath. “They are not just hiding as everyone has said. They have some kind of purpose.”

Neville nodded. “I’m sure of it. I don’t know what it is, but I believe they have worked the whole year to find a way to destroy the Dark Lord at last.”

“Do you have any way of contacting them?”

“No. I wish I had, to let them know what is going on here. I wouldn’t want to know what they are doing, just in case…”

Draco hummed. “It’s not long now, I think. There will be a final confrontation between Potter and the Dark Lord. He’ll do something to draw Potter out because somehow he thinks it important to kill Potter himself.”

Neville took Draco’s hand. “There is a prophecy,” he whispered.

Draco’s head whipped around. “What?”

“I don’t know its words. But they are both connected through this prophecy and it could have as easily been me as it was Harry. He chose Harry when he decided to attack the Potters personally in an attempt to evade the prophecy.”

Draco’s fingers closed hard around his hand. “Fuck!”

Neville snorted. “Very accurate.”

“Is Potter prepared for this?”

Neville shrugged. “He didn’t know of the prophecy until two years ago. And I’m not sure how much Dumbledore actually did to prepare him. But he is … I have seen him fight. Actually fight for life and death. There is so much raw power in Harry. I believe he is capable of defeating the Dark Lord.”

“We need to be ready,” Draco muttered. “I think it all will come to a head here. The Dark Lord is as obsessed with Hogwarts as he is with Potter. We need to be ready to distract his followers so that Potter can concentrate on him.”

  
  


Draco was not the only one who thought so, even so, no one else knew about Harry’s brief capture. All of Hogwarts seemed to vibrate with nervous energy, waiting for something to happen. Maybe that was because in the last seven years there had occurred a major event at the end of every school year.

When Harry came to Hogwarts through the secret passage from Aberforth’s pub in May, he was chased by total chaos. Despite all of that Neville and Draco managed to meet up shortly before all students were gathered in the great hall by Snape.

“I heard Potter is in the school. Is that true?”

Neville nodded. “It’s the day we have been waiting for. That we have been preparing for.”

Draco closed his eyes. “I don’t feel very prepared.”

“We have to hold onto hour hope and conviction,” Neville muttered. “We can’t give up. Because if we do, our whole world will be lost. We have to fight for our future and either we win or we die.”

“Don’t you dare!” Draco grabbed him by the collar. “Don’t you dare die on me, Neville!”

Neville smiled reassuringly. “I do plan to survive this day.”

“You better!”

And then Draco pressed his lips against Neville’s. For a fraction of a moment, Neville was so surprised by it that he did not react to it, but then he raised his hands to enclose Draco’s face with them. He felt a warmth spread through his whole body that he had never felt before.

“We’ll both survive whatever is to come today,” Draco muttered against his lips. “Because I have plans for us, do you hear me?”

“Yes.” Neville leaned his head smiling against Draco’s. “Today is the day you’ll reveal yourself. I expect to fight back to back with you because I don’t trust anyone else in your back.”

Draco nodded. “Agreed.”

  
  


Neville felt his lips tingle for a long time after they had parted ways. What followed after McGonagall had thrown Snape out of the school felt like utter chaos, but Neville saw their plans unfold wherever he looked. They were prepared and that broke through all of the panic and fear.

Neville felt gutted when Harry actually left the school to surrender himself to Voldemort, but he took Harry’s last instruction to heart. Whatever reason Harry had, he was not giving up but trying to give them their chance to win, even if that meant he would not see the victory himself.

Neville felt devastated a short time later, when Voldemort and his entourage came trotting into Hogwarts, with Hagrid holding a lifeless Harry in his arms, uncontrollably sobbing. When Voldemort demanded their surrender in the face of their fallen hero, Neville stepped forward and resolutely declined.

Before anyone could react to it, he felt Draco step up beside him. “No one here will surrender to a monster like you, Voldemort!”

The silence that followed was deafening.

Voldemort blinked several times and seemed as unable as anyone else to comprehend Draco’s words. But it was not him, who finally broke the silence, but Draco’s father: “You will come here at once, boy!”

“No.” Draco changed his stand lightly. “You can’t blackmail me with Mother’s well-being any more, that has long been lost. You have no hold over me any more, Father. Hogwarts stands united against you and yours. And I am with Hogwarts.”

There was a roar of agreement behind him. In the chaos before Harry had gone into the forest, all students who hat supported Snape and the Carrows in the last year had left and stood now among the Death Eaters.

Voldemort sneered. “You are choosing death, young Malfoy.”

Draco laughed, but there was nothing happy in it. “I am choosing freedom.” He raised his wand. “FOR HOGWARTS!”

“FOR HARRY!”, Neville chimed in and the students behind them mirrored their battle cry.

All hell broke loose, but Draco kept his promise staying by Neville’s side through it all.

Neville had no idea what happened directly after they opened the fight, but suddenly there were Fawkes and the Sorting Hat and he had the sword of Gryffindor in his hands, beheading the snake and following through with the promise he had given Harry, who turned out not to be dead and was in the midst of the battle, fighting Voldemort viciously.

The students and staff and house elves were doing what they had so carefully prepared in the last weeks and months, keeping the rest of the battle from Harry, so he would not be distracted from his task. Neville winced, whenever he saw a student being hurt or even going down, but all of them were whisked away by house elves, hopefully before any of them died.

Neville had no idea when Voldemort fell or how it happened. He felt the sudden change in the mood all around him but had no time to think about it, because the battle did not end with Voldemort’s death. Many of his Death Eaters kept fighting, even though nearly half of those who were still standing and all the creatures Voldemort had pressured into his service fled at once.

Draco’s father was one of those who tried to flee, but they managed to stop him and in the following duel Draco could follow through with the threat he had made months ago, even so, his father had not known about it. Neville was not sorry to see the elder Malfoy die.

When the battle finally found an end, Neville started to register that he had not come out of it an unscathed has he had felt. His robes were in tatters and he was littered with cuts and bruises. Draco did not look any better, but neither of them went for medical help. Instead, they started to search the battlefield for the wounded and helped to bring the dead of both sides to the place that had been made into a gathering point for them.

Many hours later, Draco and Neville sat on a cot side by side while Madam Pomfrey was quietly berating them over their carelessness for themselves and treating the multitude of their wounds.

“It’s over,” Draco muttered wide-eyed.

Neville sighed. “For the moment. I’m sure there is still a lot to do.”

“The Dar… Vol-demort is dead.” Draco turned his head to look at him. “And we are still alive.”

Smiling, Neville took his hand. “And we are still alive. We’ll have all the time in the world to explore those plans you talked about.”

Draco sighed. “I don’t even know when I fell in love with you in this whole mess.”

“Me neither.” Neville grinned. “I hadn’t even noticed it until you suddenly kissed me earlier. What a time to recognize such a thing!” He leaned his forehead against Draco’s like he had done hours before after their kiss. “I’m in love with you and I have no idea what to do with it!”

“Let’s just see what will happen,” Draco whispered. “Let’s make time for each other and for dates in whatever mess is to come now.”

“I would like that,” Neville replied softly.

“You can make those plans after you have let me finish my work on you, gentlemen!”

They broke out in giggles upon Madam Pomfrey’s interruption and they were not able to stop them for the rest of the time they were in her clutches. It was the first time in a whole year that Neville felt any kind of happiness and he would hold onto this feeling and onto Draco, for however long he could muster.

For the rest of his life, if at all possible.

  
  


** The End **

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Fill for the "Enemies to Lovers" square of my Bingo Card.


End file.
